Goldman's father was a successful businessman, working in Chicago and then for his own partnership. However he was also an alcoholic, which resulted in his business being wound up. He "came home to live and he was in his pajamas for the last five years of his life," says Goldman.[3] Goldman's father committed suicide when his son was still in high school. Adding to the stress at home was that his mother was deaf.[4]

Goldman obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College in 1952 then went into the army. He knew how to type, so was sent to the Pentagon where he worked as a clerk until discharged with the rank of corporal in September 1954. He then went to Columbia University where he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1956. All this time Goldman wrote short stories in the evenings, but struggled to get them published.

After graduating university Goldman was unsure what to do - he received an offer to teach at a high school and also considered working in advertising. However what he really wanted to do was write.

According to his memoir, Adventures in the Screen Trade (1983), Goldman began writing when he took a creative-writing course in college. His grades in the class were "horrible".[5] An editor of Oberlin's literary magazine, he would submit short stories to the magazine anonymously; he recalls that the other editors, upon reading his submissions, remarked "We can't possibly publish this shit."[5] He did not originally intend to become a screenwriter. His main interests were poetry, short stories, and novels. In 1956 he completed an MA thesis at Columbia University on the comedy of manners in America.[6]

His brother, James Goldman, who died in 1998, was a playwright and screenwriter. They shared an apartment in New York with their friend John Kander (also Oberlin and Columbia MA) and helped out Kander, a composer, by writing the libretto for his dissertation. All three later won separate Academy Awards (Kander was the composer of Cabaret, Chicago, and a dozen other famous musicals).[5]

On 25 June 1956 Goldman started writing what became his first novel, The Temple of Gold. It was written in less than three weeks[7] and was picked up for publication. It sold well enough to launch Goldman on his career.[8]

Goldman published five novels, and had three plays produced on Broadway, before he began to write screenplays. He wrote mostly serious literary works until the death of his first agent,[when?] when he started writing thrillers, the first of which was Marathon Man.[citation needed]

Goldman began writing screenplays in his 30s when Cliff Robertson hired him to adapt Flowers for Algernon, later retitled Charly, for which Robertson won the Academy Award for Best Actor.[5][9] Robertson then hired him to do some rewriting on Masquerade, which was Goldman's first screen credit.

Goldman researched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for eight years. After deciding he did not want to write a cowboy novel, he turned the story into his first original screenplay and sold it for a record $400,000 in the late 1960s.[5] Goldman felt that the script's potential, and the eight years of research involved in writing it, justified the fee.[5] He used Harry Longbaugh (a variant spelling of the Sundance Kid's real name) as his pen name for No Way to Treat a Lady. He went on to use several of his novels as the foundation for his screenplays, such as The Princess Bride. His book No Way to Treat a Lady was made into a film in 1968, but Goldman did not write the adaptation, which varied from the book.[10]

In 1973, Goldman contracted a rare strain of pneumonia which resulted in his being hospitalized and affected his health for months. This inspired him into a burst of creativity, including several novels and screenplays.[11] He says his novel writing moved in a more commercial direction following the death of his editor Hiram Haydn.[12]

Goldman wrote the famous line "Follow the money" for the screenplay of All the President's Men; while the line is often attributed to Deep Throat, it is not found in Bob Woodward’s notes nor in Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book or articles.[13] However, the book does have the far less quotable line from Woodward to Senator Sam Ervin, who was about to begin his own investigation: "The key was the secret campaign cash, and it should all be traced..."[14]

Goldman was unhappy with the movie; The Guardian says that he changes the subject when asked about the movie, but suggests that his displeasure may be because he was pressured to add a romantic interest to the film.[5] In his memoir, Goldman says of the film that if he could live his life over, he would have written the same screenplays, "Only I wouldn't have come near All the President's Men."[15] He said that he has never written as many versions of a screenplay as he did for that movie.[15] Speaking of his choice to write the script, he said "Many movies that get made are not long on art and are long on commerce. This was a project that seemed it might be both. You don't get many and you can't turn them down."[7]

In Michael Feeney Callan's book Robert Redford: The Biography Redford stated that Goldman did not actually write the filming screenplay for the movie,[16] a story that was excerpted in Vanity Fair.[17]Written By magazine conducted a thorough investigation of the screenplay's many drafts and concluded, "Goldman was the sole author of All The President's Men. Period."[15]

One of Goldman's best-known unproduced scripts is a pirate adventure, The Sea Kings. It reportedly was to star Sean Connery and Roger Moore as pirates Blackbeard and Bonnet, but the budget was too high and the project was scrapped.[18]

In the 1980s, Goldman wrote a series of memoirs about his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood. In the first of these, Adventures in the Screen Trade, he famously summed up the entertainment industry in the opening sentence of the book, "Nobody knows anything."[19][20][21] (The title is a pun on the title Adventures In The Skin Trade, a collection of stories by Dylan Thomas.) Reviewing the book, writer Art Kleiner wrote, "This is one of the three most engrossing 'creative confessional' books I've ever read... One third of the book talks about the roles of Hollywood film-making: how a film is affected by the star, the producer, the writer, and the other players. The next third tells the story of each film in Goldman's life; the final third takes you step-by-step through the making of Butch Cassidy, including a presentation of the full screenplay. This is a book of gossip with heart, gossip specifically chosen to enlighten you (and, it's pretty clear, to help Goldman himself work out his feelings about this business)."[22]

Michael Sragow, reviewing The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood? and Other Essays, writes, "Much of his gruff humor and charm derives from emphatic statements of the obvious. In writing about movies, seeing the obvious is an undeniable gift—and pounding it home conveys how difficult it can be for common sense to penetrate hype. Goldman also applies a fine-honed sledgehammer to Good Will Hunting, a movie on which he consulted for one day and insists he likes. He observes that Robin Williams, playing (he chortles) 'the shrink with only one patient,' finds an awesomely simple solution to curing the mental torment of the young genius Matt Damon: he tells the boy, 'It's not your fault,' 10 times. Goldman, like a gleeful prosecutor, repeats the phrase for us 10 times, in italics.[23]

Sragow also describes Which Lie Did I Tell? (More Adventures in the Screen Trade): "In addition to brief descriptions of topics like spitballing (brainstorming story notions) and expansions or reprints of behind-the-scenes stories already published as introductions to Goldman's screenplays, it contains famous scenes from other writers' screenplays; how-to advice on judging ideas, on turning ideas into stories and on writing them in a way that hooks the attention of a director or a star; and a partial draft of a script, with reactions from esteemed peers."[23]School Library Journal wrote about Which Lie Did I Tell?, "From The Memoirs of an Invisible Man to Absolute Power, this master storyteller explains his role and his thought processes for each film, at the same time delivering an exposition on how stories are written and films are made. Sprinkled throughout is his advice for future screenwriters. In the second section, he analyzes classic film sequences, setting each scene, quoting excerpts from the screenplays, and then explaining what made them great. Finally, the author offers story ideas and examines their potential for the big screen."[24]

Simon Morgenstern is both a pseudonym and a narrative device invented by Goldman to add another layer to his novel The Princess Bride.[25] He presents his novel as being an abridged version of a work by the fictional Morgenstern, an author from the equally fictional country of Florin. The name may be a reference to Johann Carl Simon Morgenstern who coined the term Bildungsroman describing the genre of story.

The details of Goldman's life given in the introduction and commentary for The Princess Bride are also largely fictional. For instance, he claims his wife Helen is a psychiatrist and that he was inspired to abridge Morgenstern's The Princess Bride for his only child, a son. (The Princess Bride actually originated as a bedtime story for Goldman's two daughters. Also, his wife's name was Ilene.) He not only treats Morgenstern and the countries of Florin and Guilder as real, but even claims that his own father was Florinese and had immigrated to America. At one point in The Princess Bride, Goldman's commentary indicates that he had wanted to add a passage elaborating a scene skipped over by Morgenstern. He explains that his editors would not allow him to take such liberties with the "original" text, and encourages readers to write to his publisher to request a copy of this scene. Both the original publisher and its successor have responded to such requests with letters describing their supposed legal problems with the Morgenstern estate.

In the 15th and 25th Anniversary Edition of The Princess Bride, Goldman claimed that he wanted to adapt the sequel written by Morgenstern, Buttercup's Baby, but he was unable to do so because Morgenstern's estate wanted Stephen King to do the abridgment instead. He also continued the fictional details of his own life, claiming that his psychiatrist wife had divorced him, and his son had grown to have a son of his own.

In their feature on Goldman, IGN said "It's a testament to just how truly great William Goldman is at his best that I actually had to think hard about what to select as his 'Must-See' cinematic work".[10] The site described his script for All the President's Men as a "model of storytelling clarity... and artful manipulation".[10]

Art Kleiner, writing in 1987, said, "William Goldman, a very skilled storyteller, wrote several of the most well-known films of the past 18 years—including Marathon Man, part of All the President's Men, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."[22]

In his book evaluating Goldman's work, William Goldman: The Reluctant Storyteller (2014), Sean Egan said Goldman's achievements were made "without ever lunging for the lowest common denominator. Although his body of work has been consumed by millions, he has never let his populism overwhelm a glittering intelligence and penchant for upending expectation."[26]

Someone pointed out to me that the most sympathetic characters in my books always died miserably. I didn't consciously know I was doing that. I didn't. I mean, I didn't wake up each morning and think, today I think I'll make a really terrific guy so I can kill him. It just worked out that way. I haven't written a novel in over a decade... and someone very wise suggested that I might have stopped writing novels because my rage was gone. It's possible. All this doesn't mean a helluva lot, except probably there is a reason I was the guy who gave Babe over to Szell in the "Is it safe?" scene and that I was the guy who put Westley into The Machine. I think I have a way with pain. When I come to that kind of sequence I have a certain confidence that I can make it play. Because I come from such a dark corner.[27]

Goldman has also said of his work: "I [don’t] like my writing. I wrote a movie called Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and I wrote a novel called The Princess Bride and those are the only two things I’ve ever written, not that I’m proud of, but that I can look at without humiliation."[28]

He is well known in sports circles as a die-hard fan of the New York Knicks, having held season tickets at Madison Square Garden for over 40 years. He contributed a writing section to Bill Simmons's bestselling book about the history of the NBA, where he discusses the career of Dave DeBusschere.

In the Spring the War Ended (1968) – from the novel by Stephen Linakis about American deserters in Europe at the end of World War Two. Lawrence Turman was producer and Martin Ritt attached as director but the studio, 20th Century Fox, decided not to make it because they wanted Pentagon co-operation for Patton (1970).[33][34]

The Sea Kings (late 1970s) – a pirate movie about the relationship between Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard, the first of a three-picture deal with Joseph E. Levine[36] – Goldman says he wrote the part of Blackbeard for Sean Connery and at one stage Richard Lester was attached as director[37] – Goldman says Connery and Roger Moore were considered stars, then later Roger and Dudley Moore- however the film was too expensive to make[38]

The Ski Bum aka Hot Shot (1981) – based on the article "The Ski Bum as an Endangered Species" by Jean Vallely – Goldman says this was never made due to tension between the producer and the studio[39]

^Williams, Christian (February 12, 2006). "If You're Out By Monday, Never Ask Why". Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL). Retrieved July 11, 2011. I had heard that the rules were different in Hollywood, where, as the screenwriter William Goldman famously put it, 'nobody knows anything.'

^Turan, Kenneth (January 17, 2007). "What dark horse will be the next 'Sunshine'?". Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL). Retrieved July 11, 2011. ...it becomes more apparent every year that William Goldman's great rule of studio film-making applies to the independent world as well: Nobody knows anything.

^Zipes, Jack (1995). Sanders, Joseph L, ed. Functions of the Fantastic: selected essays from the Thirteenth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts Vol. 65. Thirteenth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (Recent Trends in the Contemporary American Fairy Tale from Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy). Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 8–9. ISBN978-0-313-29521-8. Goldman recreates himself as the fictitious author of this work; that is, he uses a mask in the tradition of eighteenth-century novels...